45 percent women malnourished

Nearly half of the country's women suffer from malnutrition, with the majority of them being overweight, according to a recent study.

The study, titled "Assessing risk factors for malnutrition among women in Bangladesh and forecasting malnutrition using machine learning approaches,"  highlights the risk factors for malnourished women.

A total of 17,022 women from different regions and age groups participated in the research. Of them, 7,691, or 45.18 percent were malnourished, according to the study.

Mentionable, malnourished and undernourished are two different terms.

The study said two major categories -- "undernourished" and "overweight or obese" --  fall under the umbrella of malnutrition in women.

Among the study participants, 32.9 percent were overweight while 12.3 percent were underweight, taking the tally of malnourished women to 45.18 percent.

The study, which used data from surveys of Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey conducted in 2017-18, was published on February 1 at "BMC Nutrition", an international peer-reviewed journal of nutritional sciences, including public health.

Women aged over 35 had more malnutrition, while 55 percent of the malnourished women were from the country's southern region, said the study.

Higher-educated women and women with higher-educated husbands were the least malnourished, said the study, highlighting that poor malnourished women were suffering from underweight, while rich ones were suffering from the opposite kind of malnutrition -- overweight.

Women with a child or more had more malnutrition than women with no child, it also said.

A total of 4,987 participants did not have access to hygienic toilet facilities, it added.

Contacted, Md Habibur Rahman, associate professor at Department of Statistics and Data Science of Jahangirnagar University and supervisor of the study, said, "We used secondary data to find out the nutrition status of the country's women. We analysed 15 variables associated with nutrition as risk factors for the study."

He said their research will aid healthcare practitioners and regulators in adopting necessary interventions to minimise serious problems and the load on healthcare system.

Estiyak Ahmed Surjo, a master's student of the same department and first author of the study, said their study was conducted with a cross-sectional method of BDHS data to figure out the status of women's nutrition and also to find the accurate approach.

In Bangladesh, malnutrition is still a major issue, particularly for women and children as recent data reflects around 1.7 crore married women aged between 15 and 49 are suffering from malnutrition. Among them, 1.2 crore are overweight and 50 lakh are underweight, according to a recent research.

Experts say malnutrition is a major public health issue worldwide, which increases the overall illness and mortality rate and is connected with heart disease, diabetes, stroke, respiratory problems, and many other diseases.

Md Akhtaruzzaman, professor of Institute of Nutrition and Food Science of University of Dhaka, said underweight women face several challenges, including decreased productivity at work and increased risk of miscarriage, low birth weight of children, intrauterine fetal death, and infant mortality.

Meanwhile, being overweight increases risk for many serious diseases and health conditions, including hypertension, cholesterol complications, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, and many types of cancer, he added.

There is a need for initiatives and policies that focus on women's nutrition across different age groups and regions, he said.